Radeon 520 Mobile GDDR5 vs R9 280

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking360not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation5.26no data
Power efficiency5.20no data
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameTahitiBanks
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date4 March 2014 (10 years ago)18 April 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$279 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores1792320
Core clock speedno data1030 MHz
Boost clock speed933 MHzno data
Number of transistors4,313 million690 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)200 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate104.520.60
Floating-point processing power3.344 TFLOPS0.6592 TFLOPS
ROPs328
TMUs11220

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x8
Length275 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pinno data

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount3 GB2 GB
Memory bus width384 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed1250 MHz1125 MHz
Memory bandwidth240 GB/s36 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPortPortable Device Dependent
Eyefinity+-
HDMI+-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

CrossFire+-
FreeSync+-
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudio+-
UVD+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (11_1)
Shader Model5.16.5 (5.1)
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL1.22.1 (1.2)
Vulkan+1.2.170

Pros & cons summary


Recency 4 March 2014 18 April 2017
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt 50 Watt

R9 280 has a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount.

520 Mobile GDDR5, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 3 years, and 300% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 280 and Radeon 520 Mobile GDDR5. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon R9 280 is a desktop card while Radeon 520 Mobile GDDR5 is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD Radeon R9 280
Radeon R9 280
AMD Radeon 520 Mobile GDDR5
Radeon 520 Mobile GDDR5

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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3.6 384 votes

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4.1 11 votes

Rate Radeon 520 Mobile GDDR5 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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